diff --git a/kombu/utils/encoding.py b/kombu/utils/encoding.py
index b1ddeeb3..93788bde 100644
--- a/kombu/utils/encoding.py
+++ b/kombu/utils/encoding.py
@@ -10,9 +10,8 @@ from __future__ import absolute_import, unicode_literals
 import sys
 import traceback
 
-from kombu.five import text_t
+from kombu.five import PY3, text_t
 
-is_py3k = sys.version_info >= (3, 0)
 
 #: safe_str takes encoding from this file by default.
 #: :func:`set_default_encoding_file` can used to set the
@@ -43,7 +42,7 @@ else:
         file = file or get_default_encoding_file()
         return getattr(file, 'encoding', None) or sys.getfilesystemencoding()
 
-if is_py3k:  # pragma: no cover
+if PY3:  # pragma: no cover
 
     def str_to_bytes(s):
         """Convert str to bytes."""
@@ -111,7 +110,7 @@ def safe_str(s, errors='replace'):
     return _safe_str(s, errors)
 
 
-if is_py3k:  # pragma: no cover
+if PY3:  # pragma: no cover
 
     def _safe_str(s, errors='replace', file=None):
         if isinstance(s, str):
diff --git a/kombu/utils/json.py b/kombu/utils/json.py
index 3f9f194f..b2466a45 100644
--- a/kombu/utils/json.py
+++ b/kombu/utils/json.py
@@ -5,10 +5,9 @@ from __future__ import absolute_import, unicode_literals
 import datetime
 import decimal
 import json as stdjson
-import sys
 import uuid
 
-from kombu.five import buffer_t, text_t, bytes_t
+from kombu.five import PY3, buffer_t, text_t, bytes_t
 
 try:
     from django.utils.functional import Promise as DjangoPromise
@@ -27,7 +26,6 @@ except ImportError:                 # pragma: no cover
     class _DecodeError(Exception):  # noqa
         pass
 
-IS_PY3 = sys.version_info[0] == 3
 
 _encoder_cls = type(json._default_encoder)
 _default_encoder = None   # ... set to JSONEncoder below.
@@ -71,7 +69,7 @@ def dumps(s, _dumps=json.dumps, cls=None,
                   **dict(default_kwargs, **kwargs))
 
 
-def loads(s, _loads=json.loads, decode_bytes=IS_PY3):
+def loads(s, _loads=json.loads, decode_bytes=PY3):
     """Deserialize json from string."""
     # None of the json implementations supports decoding from
     # a buffer/memoryview, or even reading from a stream